Reincarnation Roulette
by Silver Queen
Summary: Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you don't.


Title: Reincarnation Roulette

Summary: Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you don't.

This is probably going to be a dumping ground of snippets for all the SI's I didn't end up writing. Some of them still nag at me. Probably won't be full blown chapters or anything. I do not even claim they will be any good.

Chapter One: Meimu Uchiha

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This is Konoha.

This is Konoha at war. The shadow of the Second Great Shinobi War looms deep, after nearly twenty years of peace, and embroils the entire Elemental Nations. Alliances are made, and fall and break. Hidden Sand turns on their neighbours with poison, and Hidden Rock seeks to strike Hidden Cloud down from their mountain. Hidden Mist wades into war with bloodthirsty glee, taking on any that get too close.

This is Konoha at war; rationing, equipment shortages, long hours and minimal pay. Weeks stretch to months stretch to years. Man power dwindles, a team here, a team there, until it adds, adds, adds up.

This is war ground deep into bone, bled into blood, worked in deep and hard until it will stay there forever. This is war that has been fought for years, and will be fought for years yet before any end comes into sight.

This is the Konoha into which Meimu Uchiha is born.

.

Picture a hospital room. It's in the maternity ward, a place for – mostly – happy occasions. The air is heavy with panting breaths, still echoing with shrieking. This is Kasumi Uchiha. Genin. Age 19. This is Sojiro Uchiha. Chunin. Age 21. This is their first child.

"Congratulations," the nurse says warmly. "It's a girl." There are a surprising number of children born during these years, conceived in the frantic desperate weeks of leave and downtime.

They name her Meimu, Illusion, in hopes that she will master the art of genjutsu and the Sharingan.

They name her not knowing that what they see is the illusion.

Meimu Uchiha is not a child, and this is not where her story starts.

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_What lies after death? What comes before life? _

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Reincarnation: Noun

1. the belief that the soul, upon death of the body, comes back to earth in another body or form.

2. rebirth of the soul in a new body.

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Imagine dying. Brutally, carelessly, every piece of potential falling aside unrealised, every hope and dream extinguished, every friend torn away until all that left is –

nothing

Imagine the pain and despair. The shock and horror. Imagine futilely grasping at life, a chanted mantra of '_no, no, I'm not finished yet'_. Imagine slipping away, piece by piece, a little weaker, a little dimmer, a little colder, until –

nothing

Imagine hearing nothing, seeing nothing, smelling nothing, feeling nothing, _being nothing_.

Now imagine waking up.

.

Is it any wonder that Meimu is a difficult child?

Is it really?

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Culture: Noun.

1.

the total of the inherited ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge, which constitute the shared bases of social action

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This is Konoha: Japanese, traditional, strict, confining. Loyalty to the village, the clan, above all else. Self is nothing. Sacrifice for the good of all. Duty. Emotions are a weakness.

This is New Zealand: English, informal, individualistic. Be happy, find yourself, self worth. Family, friends, job, career, balanced and partitioned.

Is it really any wonder-

.

How do you act less than you are? Why should you even try?

What would you gain, in a world identical to the one you left?

Why would you suspect it wasn't?

Why would you think, even for a moment, that the entire world was different? How would you _know?_ And even then, even after that bewildering realisation… how would you know _where?_

.

The Uchiha are _always_ on the look out for prodigies.

.

Meimu is a sullen, withdrawn child. She does not interact with the other children, does not seem to _care._

Meimu is a woman in mourning and nobody knows.

.

Picture this. The house is scrubbed clean and tidy for the visit. The low table is set with delicate china plates and cups. The entire family is primped and polished and dressed in their best kimono, all for the visit of a man who is a distant cousin at best.

"Uchiha-sama," Kasumi murmurs, bowing low. "We are honoured to invite you into our house."

She is graceful and demure, the perfect image of a housewife.

Kagami Uchiha nods, as if this respectful greeting is his due. Beside him, his thirteen year old son Fugaku represses a fidget.

They settle in for tea, polite formalities to be attended to.

"So," the Uchiha Clan Head says, eventually. "I am told Meimu is a candidate for early nomination to the Academy."

The girl in question has not yet spoken. She is three, with classic Uchiha features and wide dark eyes that follow the conversation perfectly. Her child soft features belie the stony, simmering resentment inside.

"I am not," she says flatly, "going to be a ninja."

Everyone freezes. Her parents flinch backwards with mortification and shame. Kagami turns a brutally disapproving look upon her.

"To be a ninja is an honour," he says sharply. "To represent the clan with pride and to show the strength of the Uchiha to those who oppose us. It is through our shinobi that we have strength. It is through our shinobi that we survive. It is the duty of every capable person to be trained to defend their home."

"I am not," she repeats, a bite of anger in her voice, "going to be a ninja."

Violence and pain, exhaustion and exertion? No, that's not the kind of life she wants.

Her parents try to hush her. She is being beyond rude.

She really doesn't care. Who are these people to her? What does she owe them? Why should she sell her life for these empty concepts?

"I have decided," Kagami says, ignoring her now. "Meimu will attend the Academy this coming year. " When he rises he adds, "Sojiro. Teach your daughter some manners."

"No," Meimu says, but no one is listening.

.

Imagine being an adult. To be responsible for yourself. To be in control.

Then imagine someone taking that away. Treating you like a child, incapable of making your own decisions. Overruling your decisions, forcing you onto paths you didn't want to walk.

Is it truly any wonder-

.

"We will start with physical exercises," Sojiro says sternly. He has been disappointed and angry ever since that meeting. "You will not embarrass us."

Meimu crosses her pudgy three year old arms and scowls. She won't. She turns to walk away; she has no reason to be here, no reason to listen to him.

And.

He grabs her arm. Drags her around and hits her.

Her awful, pathetic three year old body crumples to the ground. At first there is only shock. He _hit_ her! Then the pain comes, a surge of hot fire that is as ferocious as it was unexpected. She gasps, and because she is three, bursts into humiliating tears. They are not graceful tears, they are snivelling, snotty gasps.

Sojiro says, "get up." There is not an ounce of sympathy in his face. He has done this, and he will do it again.

And lying in the grass, tasting dirt, Meimu learns two lessons.

The first; ninja have no mercy, not for women, not for children.

The second; there is no one that will protect her.

.

At the Ninja Academy Meimu does not speak. Not when spoken to, pleaded with or yelled at. She does not touch pen to paper, and she does not participate in exercises.

Her teachers are not pleased.

The next day she limps to school with careful bruises up her arms and face pressed into a scowl. The teachers notice and do nothing.

This is Konoha.

There is no one that will protect her.

.

What good does knowing the future do when it is so far off?

What does she know that helps her survive?

.

Meimu tries, again and again, to escape the path laid out for her, but she is controlled, by the village, by the clan, by pain and the fear of it, and her attempts only show them the skill and intelligence that they want to see.

At home, she learns to spit fire and doesn't dare fail.

She graduates within the year.

.

Meimu is five and the war is over. Konoha is pushed back out of Land of Rain, the Hokage's students defeated by Hanzo. But Hidden Sand collapses inwards upon itself, Tsunade's antidotes negating their attack and the bite of the White Fang crushing their defence. The Third Raikage takes to the field and almost singlehandedly defends Hidden Cloud.

This doesn't concern her, except in the very general (_sharp, pointed_) fact that she will not have to fight in it.

Maybe now, with the need for half trained bodies so much less, she will be able to escape.

.

"Come into the living room," Sojiro directs. Meimu considers ignoring him. But she is afraid of pain. And disobedience is painful.

She enters without a bow and is frozen still in shock.

"Orochimaru-sama has expressed interest in taking you as his apprentice," Kasumi says with pleasure. It is good for them, Orochimaru is up and coming, recently lauded as one of the Sanin and there are many people who believe he will one day be the Fourth Hokage. He is young and brilliant and strangely charismatic when he wants to be.

Meimu sinks to her knees. She wonders how they cannot see the monster they have invited into their house.

Orochimaru smiles benevolently at her. "I think it will be very beneficial for both of us."

.

What use is it to know the future?

What does she know will help her survive?

.

There are two others that form Team Orochimaru. Akihiro and Takao. Both are newly out of the Academy with short terms and high scores. Both are lauded as genii. Uncharitably, Meimu thinks they are window dressing, simply to disguise her own worth.

To disguise that Orochimaru wants the Sharingan.

.

It weighs on her, heavily, this dance of secrets. To know what he is, and to know that no one else knows.

This is Konoha.

There is no one that will protect her.

What does she know that will help her survive?

She abandons her attempts to hold herself back.

There is no escape now. There is only being useful enough to be allowed to live.

.

Meimu wakes in the night at a sighing slithering noise. She sleeps lightly, if at all. Not so for the other two.

She sees the snakes long before the other two wake, one for each of them crawling over their sleeping rolls. She tries to move and it springs across the gap between them so fast that she doesn't even have time to scream. It winds itself along her chest, swaying above her face and staring down at her.

Meimu does not breathe or blink.

The snake is red, yellow and black, bands of colour visible even in the moonlight.

_Red and yellow kill a fellow,_ she thinks, remembering the old rhyme to distinguish harmless from poisonous. As if Orochimaru would use anything else.

She is afraid, deliriously, horrifically afraid and it freezes her solid. Fear, she remembers thinking once, is the key to awakening the Sharingan.

There is no doubt she is _very_ afraid.

But nothing changes. The snake sways hypnotically and Meimu tries not to breathe and eventually the sun rises and Orochimaru strolls back into the campsite. "You sleep far too heavily," he says, with a heavy tinge of disappointment and the snakes slither to his welcoming hands.

Team Orochimaru spends their nights with the very real fear they will be murdered in their sleep.

.

What is the Sharingan?

The pride of the Uchiha clan.

What is the Sharingan?

One of the three great doujutsu, an ocular bloodline limit capable of varied and powerful abilities.

What is the Sharingan?

.

What is a thing that looks like kindness?

Orochimaru could be very charismatic. Beguiling and charming without even saying a word.

_You wouldn't have to be afraid._ His gaze would say. _They would not be able to touch you then._

What is a thing that looks like kindness?

How fake does it have to be to stop being real?

.

_What loyalty do you have to them?_

None. None and nothing.

.

Sometimes they get missions alone. Orochimaru is, after all, an important Jounin and very, very busy.

Meimu can't help but think of these missions as a chance to breathe. Sometimes they go by themselves, but sometimes they are assigned a Chunin squad leader.

"It must be amazing, working with Orochimaru-sama," the Chunin says. "You're very lucky."

Meimu shudders. Akihiro and Takao make vague sounds of affirmation but say nothing. Takao has burns up the side of his face from training yesterday, and he winces in pain every few minutes. Neither of them say anything.

The Chunin, it turns out, is the first one to die. Whether the Sand ninja want the scroll he's carrying, or whether this is an attack of opportunity is not something Meimu considers. She reacts, hands flicking through seals, breathing out and sending flames gusting through the trees. Akihiro gurgles, clutching his throat as red spills down his shirt. Blood flies off the sharp surface of the sword that killed him, spilling through the air. It splashes across her face, getting into her eyes and _burns._

Takao screams, high pitched with fear and anger. Meimu's hands are on the kunai she never wanted to carry and she leaps, bouncing off branch to trunk to branch. The whole thing is a mess of snapshots that she will never be able to make sense of, and at the end of it, she stands, bleeding but alive, Akihiro and the Chunin dead on the ground and Takao gasping for air in front of her.

"Your eyes," he says wonderingly. "The Sharingan."

_Has she?_ Meimu touches her cheek wonderingly. It comes away tacky with blood, but the world is so clear.

She must have. It probably saved them.

Orochimaru wants the Sharingan.

The thought pounds in her head. Orochimaru wants the Sharingan. Orochimaruwantsthesharingan.

There are many things in life she fears. Orochimaru can accomplish all of them.

He can't be allowed to know she has awakened it.

Meimu eyes Takao speculatively.

_Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead._

Her hands twitch for her kunai.

.

Meimu stumbles back into Konoha, three team mates less and one more successful mission added to her tally.

She still has blood splattered across her face.

Is it really any wonder-?

.

What is the Sharingan?

A doujutsu capable of casting genjutsu, seeing chakra flows, seeing and predicting movement, copying techniques, and hypnosis. The abilities are many, and varied.

They stem from memory.

.

_We are the sum total of our experiences._

.

Memory is not fixed and immutable.

We experience, sensory input and internal observations that become encoded, reduced to flickers of electricity in our brains. It is stored and retrieved as an associated network of ideas and concepts, and recalling one concept then links to dozens of other related concepts. Thus we recall sight and sound, smell and emotion all at once.

And each event has links to the next, and the next.

What then, if those links were improved? If you could recall, with perfect clarity, things that you had not even noticed at the time? If it happened constantly, comparing and contrasting the present to that which you remembered?

Would you see a jutsu and be able to copy it perfectly? Would you be able to show an illusion so complete it might as well be real? Would you be able to predict how an opponent would move?

If your sight was sharper, could see the chakra with in all things… how much more could you do then?

What is the Sharingan?

.

If we are the sum total of our experiences, then new events can only add to us.

But.

What then, if the way we recall the past changes?

Who are we then?

.

Kasumi grows fat with another child. Sojiro is never around.

_Clearly the first worked out so well,_ Meimu thinks uncharitably. It is not their fault.

But she resents them all the same.

.

"Welcome home, Mei-chan," Kasumi says, smiling softly. "This is Obito." She rocks the baby in her arms.

What use is knowing the future?

What use-

How does it help her survive?

She watches the squalling bundle, hawk eyes contemplating as Kasumi lays him down for a nap. Her hands twitch for a kunai, but she stills them. The pillow would be a better weapon anyway; cot death. Accidental.

She is not far gone enough to consider smothering a baby.

Yet.

.

Time slips away. She is six, seven, eightnineten. She is Genin, Chunin, Orochimaru's apprentice still. She dedicated, hardworking, intense.

She is still terrified of Orochimaru.

.

She learns to spin a naginata like a dancer and kill people more efficiently. She learns to spit water and blow wind and make the earth heave underfoot. She learns to spin beguiling genjutsu and prefers to never be seen.

The clan is both pleased and not. She is strong, but every mission that goes by and she does not come back with the pinwheel eye makes them mutter.

As if she cares.

She fights and hates and fights and hates and meaning slips away under a bundle of resentment.

.

She moves out young, away from Kasumi and Sojiro, away from the bulk of the Uchiha Clan. Not far enough, never far enough, but distance gives her some respite from them.

The place is mostly bare, clean by dint of being largely unused. Meimu flops down on the bedroll and, beneath the complete black of the sunglasses she wears, activates her Sharingan.

Carefully, she builds the genjutsu.

"Man, this place could use some decoration," a cheerful voice says. "Maybe a kitten poster. That'd stop you going mad." It's the same, every time. A complete personality, carefully recreated from scraps of memory. A ghost. A sister.

"Too late," she projects, voice unspoken, and _real._ It's hers, not this imposter who she is now. This is not Meimu. "I miss you, so I must be crazy."

"Course you miss me," comes back. "Who doesn't want me in their life?" A quick flash of a grin. "Although, I have to point out that this isn't healthy."

"Says my hallucination."

"Is it called a hallucination if you do it on purpose?" she asks, as if it really matters. "But you made me, so really, it's just you saying that it. Or maybe it's just you thinking that I would say it so I say it even if you don't think it. … I've confused myself now."

.

Is it really any wonder…

.

She meets Jiraiya. She meets Minato.

"How… delightful," Orochimaru purrs. He has been… disappointed with her, lately. Distracted. Meimu desperately hopes she is not about to be discarded. She doubts she will survive the experience.

Minato is bright sunshine and awkward politeness. _This_ will grow up to be the strongest shinobi in the elemental nations?

But yes. Yes he will.

The only freedom, in this world of ninja, is strength.

And he will be very strong indeed. Maybe enough to match wits with Orochimaru.

"Uh," Minato says, when it becomes clear that Jiraiya and Orochimaru intend to argue. "We could… go and get something to eat?"

He's a little older than her, a few years, and Meimu needs him on her side. She nods. "Yes. That would be… good."

Her lack of socialisation makes itself known. At least it doesn't seem to deter him.

.

The Hidden Villages have been the source of countless improvements and advances since their founding. Before, records were too easily lost, and individual clans too few to hold proper facilities. Secrecy and withholding of information means science is… limited.

Orochimaru is a researcher, always pushing boundaries.

He is, in fact, the one that discovers DNA.

Meimu knows she has an opening here. With her schooling, with the perfect clarity of the Sharingan memories… if she can keep discovering, prove herself too useful to be discarded despite a 'lack' of Sharingan…

If she can stay one step ahead of him simply by virtue of having walked this way before…

If, if, if…

.

Obito grows. Fivesixseveneightnineten. Another war starts and Meimu is gone as often as she is there, hating and fighting, fighting and hating, and sees him grow in distant snapshots of life.

He doesn't activate his Sharingan.

"I'll be a great ninja even without the Sharingan!" he screams. "Just like Nee-sama!"

She finds it hilarious.

.

She's passing through the Land of Rain on a mission, wet and miserable, when she nearly stumbles across a group of ninja around a fire.

There is a quick standoff as they all jump to attention, Meimu skidding along the ground one hand on her weapon.

"You're from Konoha?" The purple haired woman says, sounding almost wistful.

Meimu nods, affirmative, even though the headband gives it away. They aren't wearing any. Their description trickle through her head, matching up with names. "You're Jiraiya's students." Trained in the Second War; the ones that will found Akatsuki.

They look surprised.

"My sensei is Orochimaru," she clarifies, fumbling for words. This is… an opportunity.

"He wanted to kill us," the red haired boy – Nagato – says. "Three kids, asking for food and he wanted to kill us."

"Interesting," Meimu muses. "Usually he would be the one to propose using you for his own ends. Perhaps he was trying for kindness?" It is an irrelevant thought. But lonely desperate orphans are exactly the type of people that Orochimaru would gather around him.

(_What type of person are you-)_

But they invite her to the fire and they talk. Yahiko is eager to share their desire for peace and she thinks about what will happen to him, and what will happen after.

"Are you going to kill Hanzo?" She asks curiously.

"No!" Yahiko says, almost upset. "There are too many orphans in this country already. Another war will destroy us."

She lets the topic fall away, but before she leaves she says, "I will tell you the weakness of Hanzo the Salamander." Of poison and weak spots and a way to survive an encounter that they don't know is coming.

"What do you want?" Nagato says, peering at her from under his bangs, once she's done.

Meimu considers. "Let me know if you hear from a man named Madara Uchiha. And don't trust him."

They look puzzled.

She doesn't really care if they listened or not.

.

Meimu is seventeen and in ANBU. She prefers the Assassination Squad to the Hunter-nin because it means her targets have much less chance of being able to fight back and hurt her. With poisonous snakes and genjutsu to hide her from sight, she is very good at what she does.

Obito is twelve and graduating the Academy. She shows up, amused that barely any of the rest of the family bothered. There had been a huge turnout at hers. Obito cares much more about the clan than she does.

"Nee-sama!" Obito says. "You came!"

She looks down at him and wonders if – given another chance – she would smother that baby now.

"I have to introduce you!" He chatters away, pointing out all his classmates. "And that's Rin." He blushes.

Meimu smiles, long and slow. "Rin?" she repeats, teasingly.

"She's really nice," he says defiantly. "Not like the rest of them." He glowers and it has an edge to it.

_Uchiha,_ she thinks, with a curling edge of resentment. The irony of it amuses her.

.

Obito is thrilled to be on Minato's team with Rin, less so with Kakashi. Kasumi says nothing, just smiles vapidly. Minato isn't anyone, yet, besides a Jounin. Kakashi is the son of the disgraced White Fang and the reason they're at war again.

.

"Hello, Rin-rin," Meimu says, sliding out from between the trees.

The girl twitches, spinning around eyes wide. Her hand goes for a kunai, before she sees and relaxes.

_Foolish._

"Whatever are you doing out so late at night?" The mocking lit is reminiscent of her sensei, but Meimu hardly notices.

"Training," Rin says. "I'm sorry, Uchiha-san. Were you looking for the training field?"

"Oh, no," Meimu says. "I was looking for you."

There is a flicker across her face. Wariness.

"Obito is very taken with you, you know," She says, lips curling into a smile. "You are very good, Rin-rin. How did you get so very far without being caught?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she says evenly.

Oh but she was good, wasn't she? So long here, without being suspected at all. The soon to be Fourth Hokage's student. Not that anyone knew that. Oh, but she was good.

"Oh, Rin-rin," Meimu says, with a wicked laugh. She could see that the name _got_ to her. It was common, so common, something like what a parent would call a child. And Rin was supposed to be an orphan. "_Over water, under sea, places home to Mist shinobi…_ You're a very long way from water, my dear."

She froze. Her breath was coming in fast pants. She was trembling. "I don't know what-"

"I don't care, Rin-rin," Meimu says, soothingly. "My brother is your teammate, he loves you very much." She runs the back of her fingers across the girls cheek. "You're going to love him, too, aren't you? Like he's the man of your dreams."

Her breath catches.

"You'll do everything he needs to awaken his Sharingan," Meimu continues. "Won't you?"

"I-"

"I could take you to Danzo," Meimu offers, the same low croon. "He's a very… discrete man. No one would ever know where you vanished. And then… oh, but things would come out wouldn't they? That would be very, very bad for you."

Rin goes white and terribly pale. Meimu traces down, over her jaw and brushes across her neck.

"Be a good girl, Rin-rin," she says.

.

Tobi had wanted to destroy the world to get his girl back. Well. Now he has her.

.

Is it really any wonder-

.

Orochimaru talks about taking on another apprentice, when the war is over.

"Why?" Meimu purrs, eyes lowered. "You have me."

She sleeps with him, because she loves him as much as she hates him and hates him as much as she fears him. He sleeps with her because he finds her desperation to please him amusing, her constant circumventing of rejection.

It's one power play after another and it might just be all in her head.

Who knows. It wouldn't be the only thing.

.

The war ends and Kakashi doesn't lose an eye. Obito doesn't die-vanish-fall prey to Madara. Rin watches her with terrified eyes every time she appears.

Minato stomps all over the force from Hidden Rock, earning himself the name The Yellow Flash.

There are whispers he will be the next Hokage.

.

Something changes, a quick slide of meaning.

Orochimaru has grown bored with her.

It's time.

.

She pretends to be appropriately horrified when his research is uncovered.

.

"What do you think?" The Hokage asks grimly, hands clasped behind his back.

"I think she's lying through her teeth," Inoichi says. "I think she knew exactly what he was up to." He looks through the mirrored glass into the interrogation room where Orochimaru's apprentice is being grilled. "I also think someone had to let all this slip. We didn't find out by chance."

.

"He's been... gone a lot recently," Meimu says. "I thought he was just doing more ANBU work with Danzo and I didn't want to know more."

"Why not?" the interrogator asks flatly. He seems disappointed that Meimu is talking, as though he'd prefer to force her.

"I prefer to stay away from Danzo. His Uchiha fetish worries me."

"His what?" The interrogator raises and eyebrow.

"He always speaks as though he reviles us… but his eyes are always so hungry." Meimu tilts her face down, to hide her expression. "I was invited with them, a few times, but I managed to decline."

Let them, she thinks with satisfaction, listen to you now, Danzo.

It is a shame Orochimaru got away. The Third was too weak. She had thought with Jiraiya and Minato and Tsunade in the village…

She hopes very much he does not suspect that she has betrayed him.

.

Meimu grows. Eighteennineteentwenty. She outlives all her classmates. Whispers come of the death of Hanzo the Salamander. Danzo nearly dies on a mission. Minato becomes Hokage. Kushina grows pregnant.

The Konoha ANBU begin catching strange white men in the forest.

And Obito comes running to her one day, in a panic. "Nee-sama! You have to help me! It's Rin!"

Meimu follows more out of curiosity than desire to help.

.

Rin is good. Rin is lucky, but all luck runs out.

People watch the students of the Hokage much more closely.

"Kakashi is going to kill her!" Obito rants, as Rin huddles in a black ANBU cloak. "We have to get her out of here!"

Meimu considers it. "Why not?" she shrugs.

.

She gets them out of the village, and leaves a clear wide scent trail for the nin dogs to follow.

_This promises to be interesting._

.

Kakashi catches up with them on the plains to the west. Meimu cloaks herself in genjutsu and he doesn't even glance her way.

The tearful exchange between the three of them belongs in a movie, she thinks absently, as Rin cries and Obito recriminates and Kakashi is cold and hard and ready to kill them both. He doesn't have a Sharingan, and Chidori is a far off dream without it, but he is Kakashi Hatake, and he is not to be taken lightly.

They fight. Meimu hangs back, content to watch and amuse herself. It's really quite obvious that they don't stand a chance.

Rin dies and Obito screams with rage as his Sharingan mutates into something else entirely. His uncontrolled Kamui takes Kakashi's arm off at the shoulder and suddenly the game is changed.

Obito fights like a wild thing, like a monster and when he's done he turns to her and snarls, "_why didn't you help?"_

Meimu cocks her head to the side. "I got you the girl. It isn't my fault if you lacked the strength to hold her."

He snarls and attacks her, Sharingan bleeding madness.

Meimu counters it with her own.

.

She has five years on him. Size and Range. Fifteen years of experience as a ninja, under Orochimaru where failure was death.

No one has seen her Sharingan and lived to tell of it.

.

Do you think it was even a contest?

.

This is Konoha.

There is no one that will protect you.

The only freedom is in strength.

.

Meimu stares down at the body of the man-boy who is her blood brother. His eyes are still red with the Sharingan as his life blood soaks into the grass.

"Nee-sama?" He mutters, pitifully confused.

"Poor, foolish little brother," she says.

And reaches for her knife.

.

Is it really any wonder how it ends?

.


End file.
